All road vehicles today are equipped with front and rear passenger seat belts. These conventional seat belt systems predominantly include a lap belt and a shoulder belt and in many cases the lap belt and shoulder belt is one continuous loop of webbing material. Typically, the seat belt webbing is attached a first end to a structural member of the vehicle. The seat belt webbing is then threaded through a slot in a latch plate that forms the lap belt portion of the seat belt when the latch plate is latched within the buckle. The seat belt webbing continues through the slot in the latch plate and across the chest of an occupant to a D-ring or guide that is typically mounted to the upper end of a B-pillar for front seat occupants. As conventionally known, the D-ring includes a slot for receiving the seat belt webbing and redirecting the webbing to a seat belt retractor typically mounted to the base of the B-pillar or other vehicle structure.
Over the years there have been many enhancements to vehicle seat belt systems. For example, in many cases the D-ring is mounted to a height adjuster that allows the D-ring to be raised or lowered along the B-pillar providing a more comfortable positioning of the shoulder belt portion of the seat belt across the chest of the vehicle occupant. Another improvement made to vehicle seat belt systems is the inclusion of a load limiting member in the seat belt retractor. The load limiting member absorbs high levels of restraining force exerted by the seat belt webbing on the occupant preventing injury. A further development was the introduction of a dual mode limiting retractor that provided at least two levels of load limiting based on occupant size. While these improvements in seat belt system design have increased comfort and enhanced the performance of safety restraint systems. Improvements are still needed to address the safety restraint requirements of the younger or smaller passengers and especially children who have exceeded the weight limitation of child seats.
Thus, a new and improved safety restraint system that is adjustable to address the safety requirements of adult and children passengers is needed. The new and improved system should provide a comfortable safety restraint as well as meet all of the appropriate restraint performance requirements.